The winner of Ronnie Brewer's old spot is …

OAKLAND, Calif. — And the winner of Ronnie Brewer’s old starting shooting guard spot, at least for now, is … undrafted rookie Wesley Matthews. Jazz coach Jerry Sloan explains: “I thought he played pretty well (when swingmen C.J. Miles and Kyle Korver both were out due to surgery earlier this), and guys starting coming back, and (we) started moving guys around a little bit to try to find out where we were,” Sloan said after the Jazz’s shootaround this morning and before tonight’s road game against Golden State. “We’ll see how it goes.” Brewer was traded to Memphis on Thursday, creating the void in Utah’s opening lineup. In light of the decision by Sloan, a few items noted in an earlier post: The Jazz are 13-6 with Matthews starting this season, as opposed to 4-6 when Miles starts; that’s a .684 winning percentage with Matthews as a starter, better even than their .641 throughout this season. Matthews is the only Jazz player who has started at shooting guard besides Brewer this season. And if it wasn’t for the unexpected emergence of the rookie out of Marquette, Brewer probably would never have been traded in the first place.

About Me

Jody Genessy is the Utah Jazz beat writer for the Deseret News. To answer some of your questions:

1) Yes, he travels everywhere the Jazz do.
2) No, he doesn't fly on the team charter.
3) No, he can't sneak you into the game, let you take notes for him or get you tickets (sorry, Mom).
4) Yes, he realizes that other people out there have to work for a living so he's a lucky dude.
5) Yes, he usually answers questions in the third person.